Thursday, March 21, 2013

The Baek, In-je Show for March 21, 2013

5 comments:

I've never understood why Koreans blast the heater indoors and on the subway. It's always a few degrees above comfort level. It dries my eyes up and makes it so that I cannot keep my eyes open in the office. On the subway it only amplifies the smell and body heat of everyone, and on the bus it a causes the windows to fog up. If Koreans always need to be boiling hot, then how do millions of Koreans survive abroad, in places where they cannot blast the office heater on it's highest setting?

They get one of those space heaters for under their desk, and a pink blanket or one that is yellow with a happy, half peeled banana smiling on it.

What you wrote made me remember going to meetings in a huge Korean conglomerate that worked for where the heater was up so high, It was almost impossible to stay awake. It was really rough. But I never slept in the office. One of the greatest compliments ever paid to me at that job was that I was never seen sleeping at my desk. I put that shit on the top of my resume. Baek, In-je Never falls asleep while at work

"Oh, take a some rest." I've never slept at my desk either, I don't smoke, drink coffee, eat lunch, or do anything at my desk. Funny how Koreans compliment foreigners on never sleeping at work. Its like Chris Rock's famous routine about people bragging about never going to jail. "You're not supposed to go to jail!"

People think I'm a "clajy poleigner" because I wear shorts all year round. When I get on a subway or eat in a restaurant, I'm as comfortable as a day at the beach. Theyre all wearing their Nors Pace jackets and sweating like suckers and I'm the crajy one?

One of the most embarrassing things I see is during a light drizzle and men running with their one hand over their head. Using an umbrella in the snow is pretty lame too but somewhat understandable. Running in light rain is just pathetic to me.

I always tell my wife (non Korean but Asian) and friends back home: Korea could and would be a great place if it wasn't for the Koreans. I work and live on a uni campus and am safe and segregated in my bubble here. I'd never last this long if I had to venture out everyday and face people in the morning rush on the mass transit systems.

Wife and I went to India this winter and there are cows everywhere. Walk through traffic as they please, eat anything, shit everywhere, barge into markets and push people around. No one can stop them because their culture prohibits them from doing so. Everyone is annoyed by them but no one will ever do anything to stop them. Most poignant quote of the trip was "I fucking hate these cows, they're like the adjummas of India." It was funny at the time because it was spontaenous but now it depressing and sad. To compare the elderly people of Korea to roaming, filthy, beasts of burden bovines, from a 3rd world country. Shit, I guess it is still kinda funny.

I love that quote. It really matches well with their...."character" (or lack thereof). Adjummas...I sure wish that MY grandmother would have held my penis while I urinated in open view of everyone, in a public place, my pants and underwear down past my knees. And, you know of course, that the unique flavor of kimchii comes from the flavor of an adjumma's hands while preparing it. Please understand my culture, that's really not gross.